1. Technical Field
The present invention pertains to a device for use with a medical item that notifies a user of prior medical item use.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Generally, an intravenous (IV) fluid bag is shipped in a sealed plastic covering to protect the bag. The IV bag is generally in the form of a sealed plastic container and includes two ports. The ports may be utilized to connect the bag to an administration set to deliver IV fluid from the bag to a patient and to receive syringe needles for injection of medicaments into the IV fluid for infusion to a patient. The syringe needles pierce a penetrable seal on the injection port where the medicaments are injected before the needle is removed. The penetrable seal includes a self-sealing material to prevent leakage when a syringe needle is removed, where the sealing material is of sufficient strength to withstand numerous injections without a leak. Utilizing such injection ports enables introduction of medicaments without compromising the sterility of the bag.
When medical personnel administer IV fluid to a patient, it is important for the personnel to be aware of various characteristics of the fluid or infusion apparatus to avoid serious injury to the patient. For example, personnel awareness of prior use of or injection into an IV bag may prevent infusion of contaminated fluid or fluid with improper medication for a patient. Since the self-sealing material shows virtually no indication of a puncture, the IV bag does not provide any notification to medical personnel (e.g. nurse, pharmacist, etc.) of a prior injection of medication or a potentially dangerous substance. This may lead to an inadvertent injection of an improper combination of medications into the IV bag and/or infusion of dangerous substances into a patient, thereby causing significant patient injury.
There is therefore a need to develop an indicator of prior use of a medical item capable of informing medical personnel of the possibility that a medication has been added to an IV bag. More specifically, there is a need to develop a system of visually alerting medical personnel of a prior use of an IV bag injection port.